Archive for May, 2012

The first external evaluation report has been presented by Angelica L. Bucur, Ec. MBA, the external evaluator for the Tools project.

Angelica L. Bucur says that the project is working “towards building image and presence”, which is one of the strong sides of the partnership, according to the evaluator.

“The project has demonstrated very good progress during the period January 1st – May 15th 2012, based on consistent project management and quality assurance activities and tools. The first results and achievements have been in very good relationship with the original planning. There are already a few additional results, produced either by the partner members, by the teachers adding resources to Clilstore or by students participating to the project testing. The project was effective in implementing the activities of the first 4,5 months and in ensuring an excellent team building and a collaborative work-environment.

The contribution of partners to the development of outcomes was clear, and enhanced by continuous communication and exchanges”.

These links provide examples of the kind of new, fresh, and authentic community-based materials which (subject to the creators’ agreement) Scottish TOOLS partner SMO aims to sample and re-present for language learners, using the Clilstore platform where appropriate.

Local community voices are finding some interesting new platforms from which to make themselves heard. In addition to the recently launched Guthan/Voices page on Am Pàipear several new blogs have been started, (including audio-blogs!).

Gaelic tutor Archie Campbell started writing “Cò ach esan?” with Blogspot some months back, but has just recently started adding Ipadio phonecasts – which allows him to complement his texts with recorded speech. That’s very helpful for Gaelic learners who need to hear what the language actually sounds like.

Loriana Pauli has just started writing “From the Water’s Edge” in English on WordPress, but also including audio links from her new Ipadio channel.

And the Gaelic learners in Berneray now have a class blog, “Guthan Bheàrnaraigh”, also on WordPress. The first written contribution is by Rita Dix, on her 1985 meeting with Prince Charles.

All these “new voices” promise to provide interesting material to share…

There is no longer any question if we should, or should not, integrate technology into our teaching and learning. The massive question is how should we use technology within our classrooms.
Given this new reality, Surrey school district asked their high schools to apply for an iPad grant. The research is in, and the schools are leading the way. As the initial set of teachers uncover the benefits of iPads and other electronic devices, the staff at EMS, and other schools, will change the look and feel of our classrooms. It is the most exciting time to be in education.

Technology in MyClassroom? “[Our large schools] are organized like a factory of the late 19th C: top down, command control management, a system designed to stifle creativity and independent judgment.” David T Kearns Former CEO Xerox

Some teachers may be thinking: “Who has time to integrate technology in my classroom?” or “My students are doing fine, who needs technology?” Continents have not moved, and 1 + 1 still equals 2.

The concern with these real life statements is that to ignore integrating technology would be to risk becoming irrelevant to our students.

There is no longer any question if we should, or should not, integrate…

“It’s excellent, give us more!”, that was the overwhelming response from Year 1 and Year 2 students of Irish at the University of Ulster following a recent trial of Clilstore. The units created for the purpose of this trial: http://alturl.com/w6bao & http://alturl.com/s5jjh were based on sample materials from the new Third Level Syllabus for Irish (see http://www.teagascnagaeilge.ie) which is based on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.

The trial was conducted within Ulster’s Multimedia Language Lab and each student had the benefit of using the materials on their own networked pc. The students were impressed by the ease of use of the software, the way it helped them to get to grips with new vocabulary using the dictionary interface and the twin-panel, single-screen format. When asked how they thought the software could be improved the students mostly felt that nothing needed to be changed, however, a few glitches relating to new tabs opening while switching between dictionaries and a non-responsive dictionary were brought to light.

This feedback has been most gratifying for the project team and has given us a useful insight into where we need to concentrate our efforts in the short term i.e. producing more units which reflect the learner level and content needs of our students. Needless to say, any constructive criticism received from the students will be acted upon, and issues such as the size of the font in the exercises have already been dealt with.